HOME | DD
ILJackson — Occams Razor
Published: 2012-04-12 19:15:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 3439; Favourites: 50; Downloads: 147
Redirect to original
Description
Occam's Razor is the starship of the pirate Basario, one of the lead captains of the League of Shadows. Deadly, swift and captained by a man who values making every calculation.Basario chose the name after finding out that skeptics of the supernatural once commonly used the theory of Occam's Razor to prove their point. What most didn't know was that the theory was originally used as proof of the existence of God and the supernatural.
It is the kind of twisted irony he enjoys.
Related content
Comments: 12
I like the back story although I'm not sure about the irony because couldn't it be seen that other people just have a different opinion on what the simplest answer is?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The irony is the fact that those who use it as a skeptical argument are generally ignorant of its origins, and yes, you hit the nail on the head. Occam's Razor is actually worthless philosophically for two reasons: 1. The simplest answer is no more often the right answer than any other more complex answer (see quantum physics), and 2. "simplest" is basically defined by how few words you can break something down into. For example try explaining what causes lightning to fall from the sky and try to make it simpler than "Thor did it."
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
ah, I see what you mean now, thanks
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Actually in present (20th century) Queen's English the spelling is Occam. As in the guy who postulated: If there are multiple explanations of a certain phenomena, the simplest one is usually the correct one. As a living language English keeps changing, as now we have to endure "internet-ese"...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I presume you meant Ockham's Razor, and if so that was the theory of basically saying keep things short and simple. How do you mean it?
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
oh, and I like your DA name, as you can probably tell by my quote
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
It's actually spelled Occam or Ockham, and was used by William of Occam to explain that the simplest explanation for the apparent neatness of science and the universe was God. Basically Occam posited that since the world worked within very specific rules, the simplest explanation was that someone allpowerful made it all work that way.
From Wikipedia: "Occam's razor is attributed to the 14th-century English logician, theologian and Franciscan friar Father William of Ockham (d'Okham), although the principle was known earlier.[4] Ptolemy stated "We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible"[5], while phrases such as "It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer" and "A plurality is not to be posited without necessity" were commonplace in 13th century Scholastic writing.[5] The words attributed to Occam, entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem (entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity), are absent in his extant works.[6] Indeed, Ockham's contribution seems to be to restrict the operation of this principle in matters pertaining to miracles and God's power: so, in the Eucharist, a plurality of miracles is possible, simply because it pleases God."
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you for the clarification, but what I did not was that Ockham did indeed think the simplest explanation for the Universe was God- I so I guess a thank once more is in order.
And yes by your quote I thought it ever so likely you are a Babylon 5 fan
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
When I posted it, I knew people would be like "wait...what?"
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Indeed you were corect
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
